<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=15Sv99_0w33kXnM00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=15Sv99_0w33kXnM00" width="1200" height="858" ><figcaption>States in the Mississippi River basin have crafted plans to reduce nutrient loss from fields into waterways. These plans include incentives for farmers to implement practices that reduce nutrient runoff, including terraces, field buffers and cover crops. Photo courtesy USDA NRCS</figcaption></figure>Nutrient loss from Midwestern fields has caused problems for farmers and in the faraway waters of the Gulf of Mexico.Nutrient loss from farms as part of field runoff and erosion cuts into farmers’ bottom lines and can hurt soil productivity, while also leading to water quality concerns. This nutrient loss, along with nutrients from non-farm sources such as wastewater treatment facilities, can make its way to where the Mississippi River exits into the Gulf of Mexico, contributing to a hypoxia zone, or an area of low oxygen levels, in the Gulf.The U.S. Hypoxia Task Force, made up of representatives from the Mississippi River basin states, has been working on this issue for more than two decades, and in 2008, the task force asked the states to come up with their own plans for reducing nutrient loss tailored to the situation in each state.After consultation with agricultural, environmental and wastewater treatment groups, along with input from the public, the 12 participating states crafted their nutrient loss strategies about a decade ago. This year marks 10 years since Missouri implemented its nutrient loss reduction strategy.‘A big ship’Chris Wieberg is deputy director of the Missouri Geological Survey, housed within the state’s Department of Natural Resources. He works with water quality and serves as Missouri’s lead representative on the Hypoxia Task Force.Wieberg says reducing nutrient loss across a massive area like the Mississippi River basin takes time and progress is gradual.“It’s a big ship that has to be turned,” he says. “You’ll not do it all in one day. These are things that take time.”Catherine DeLong works as water quality program manager for Iowa State University Extension. She says the state nutrient loss reduction plans are about addressing the problems in the Gulf but also helping the state’s farm fields.“There was a realization those states were sending a lot of nutrients into the Mississippi and it was going down the Gulf and causing hypoxia,” she says. “…We want to keep those nutrients here in Iowa. We want to keep that fertility in the state.”She says nutrient runoff can also cause water quality issues in the Midwestern states, including algal blooms in local lakes that can impact enjoyment of them.DeLong says Iowa had its plan ready in 2012 — one of the first states to craft its strategy after consultation with stakeholders, reviewing the science of nutrient runoff and hearing from the public. She says nitrogen and phosphorous are the key nutrients the plan targets to keep those in fields where they benefit crops instead of washing downstream.Incentives and educationWieberg says Missouri’s nutrient loss reduction strategy is about providing incentives to reduce nutrient loss as well as provide education about what management practices help. This includes “point sources” like wastewater treatment facilities but also agriculture.<h2>People are also reading…</h2>“This is largely incentive based as well as good education on management practices,” he says.Wieberg says there are a variety of cost-share programs at the state and federal level to help farmers implement practices that reduce nutrient runoff as well as private grants. Some of these practices that help prevent nutrient loss are cover crops, terraces and other field structures, buffer strips around fields, wetland areas and applying nutrients at the right rate and time.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2vi2WX_0w33kXnM00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2vi2WX_0w33kXnM00" width="1703" height="1217" ><figcaption>Photo courtesy USDA NRCS</figcaption></figure>Farmers also are investing some of their own money in these practices and Wieberg says research continues as to which ones provide the most return on investment, as well as how to best measure improvement in nutrient loss reduction. He says landowners want to know “if the juice is worth the squeeze” and what works best.“We want to be cost effective, and we want to be adaptive in our approach,” he says. “Because we’re the Show-Me State, we want to have that attention in our strategy as well.”Measuring progressThere is also ongoing work to help better measure progress. Wieberg says the point-source goals for places like wastewater treatment plants can be easy to measure, but reducing runoff on ag land can be more difficult to quantify.For example, he says there is a lack of information on how long it will take progress made in Missouri, Iowa or Illinois to show up in the hypoxia situation in the Gulf of Mexico. There is not a lot of data on how long nitrogen or phosphorus that run off a Midwestern field take to reach the Gulf, so it can be hard to immediately judge the progress being made.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2b7Mbo_0w33kXnM00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2b7Mbo_0w33kXnM00" width="1152" height="783" ><figcaption>Practices that help prevent nutrient loss are cover crops, terraces and other field structures, buffer strips around fields and wetland areas. IFT photo by Benjamin Herrold</figcaption></figure>While that work continues, Wieberg says farmers continue to implement practices on their farms that reduce nitrogen loss, to protect their soil fertility and prevent erosion while also taking advantage of cost-share money available. Missouri has a state sales tax that helps fund conservation practices, and other states have options along with federal programs. He says farmers continue to put in their own money as well.“The farmer investment is significant,” Wieberg says.DeLong says her state’s nutrient loss reduction plan looks at inputs, water and land use, and human factors. She says an online dashboard helps track what practices farmers are implementing to help in conservation efforts and to reduce nutrient runoff.“We track cover crops, tillage, synthetic fertilizer application, nitrogen timing, nitrogen inhibitor use,” DeLong says. “We also track edge-of-field practices.”She says these edge of field practices, such as bioreactors and saturated buffers, have shown some of the biggest growth in conservation practices used. DeLong says study is ongoing as to the full benefits of edge-of-field practices, but she says generally there is alignment between what is good for conservation and what is good for a farmer’s bottom line.Wieberg says the national task force and state nutrient loss reduction plans are addressing a very large-scale issue, but he says it is one that impacts a variety of areas and carries great importance.“The nutrient loss issue is one of the biggest environmental challenges of our generation,” Wieberg says. “We’re trying to stop something that is happening over an area that is really big. This area feeds the world, and the thing we’re trying to stop from leaving (nutrients in the soil) helps feed the world.”</div></body>

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Nutrient plans work to improve soil and water

Nutrient loss from Midwestern fields has caused problems for farmers and in the faraway waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Nutrient loss from farms as part of field runoff and erosion cuts into farmers’ bottom lines and can hurt soil productivity, while also leading to water quality concerns. This nutrient loss, along with nutrients from non-farm sources such as wastewater treatment facilities, can make its way to where the Mississippi River exits into the Gulf of Mexico, contributing to a hypoxia zone, or an area of low oxygen levels, in the Gulf.

Nutrient plans work to improve soil and water

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